The typical cost of construction for high rise buildings is inflated by the cost of onsite labor, particularly when onsite labor intensive tasks are performed higher and higher above ground level. As construction activities move up a tall building, labor rates increase and production becomes less efficient for a number of reasons including the necessity of moving project materials by crane or elevator to get the materials to their final installation location. At higher elevations, movement of both materials and labor slows down, increasing construction schedule times and again adding to the construction cost.
As areas urbanize higher density and increased land cost make high-rise buildings a necessity. Higher density also provides higher value to communities and to the environment. It reduces resource use by limiting vehicle trips and reduces development footprints to leave more undisturbed natural land elsewhere in the city or outside of city limits.
Unfortunately in many economic climates high rise building has become unfeasible due to the high cost of this building type. Since income from building operations is solely reliant upon economic conditions, the only way to make this building type viable in many situations is to reduce the cost of construction. Since the construction costs related to conventional methods of construction are also solely reliant upon economic conditions, the construction cost may be reduced by replacing some of the onsite work with prefabricated factory work, and also by reducing the total onsite construction time.